The present invention relates to a system for printing images, and more particularly to an image forming system capable of directly supplying image data scanned by a scanner to an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, without the aid of a host apparatus, such as a personal computer, intervening therebetween.
According to known image forming systems for printing images on recording materials such as copy papers, image data of characters, drawings, photos, and the like are first read by a scanner to provide the read image data to a host apparatus in which they are processed in appropriate manners, and the processed image data are then supplied from the host apparatus to an image forming apparatus such as a printer.
However, the foregoing conventional systems have the following drawback. For example, when employing as an image forming apparatus an ink-jet type color printer, the properties of ink and the printing methods are different from each other for each kind of printer. Thus, for sending out data from the host apparatus to the printer, it is necessary that the host apparatus have a certain adjusting means for color conversion data, color conversion programs, or the like.
This kind of problem is not limited only to the ink-jet color printer. Namely, when using a variety of monochrome (black-and-white) type printers as an image forming apparatus, data for setting print density, half tone and others should be provided in a printer, resulting in the same problem as mentioned above.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming system capable of forming images by directly transmitting image data scanned by a scanner to an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, of various types, without the increase in amount of the conversion data or program data.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a scanner for use in the above image forming system.
In the present invention, the term xe2x80x9cimagexe2x80x9d is used as a representative of pieces of information including characters, drawings, photos, and others printed on objects to be scanned.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming system including: an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material using image data produced from image information represented on an object; a host apparatus including: first memory for storing control data or a program being set according to a type of the image forming apparatus and being executed for controlling the image forming apparatus; and a control unit for outputting the control data or the program stored in the first memory at a given time event; and a scanner including: an image reading unit for reading the image information on the object and generating the image data corresponding to the information; a second memory being rewritable and having a memory capacity capable to store the control data or the program which are associated with the image forming apparatus; and a control unit for storing, into the second memory, the control data and the program outputted from the host apparatus, for processing the image data generated by the image reading unit according to the control data and the program stored, and for outputting the processed image data to the image forming apparatus.
In accordance with the system thus configured, at a time when the operational environment of the scanner is set, the control data or program of the image forming apparatus is outputted from the control unit of the host apparatus to the scanner. The control data or program is stored in the rewritable memory by the control unit of the scanner. This eliminates the necessity of previously storing, into the memory of the scanner, plural kinds of control data or a program each corresponding to plural types of image forming apparatus. Like in the host apparatus, an appropriate control is carried out in the scanner in agreement with the types of the image forming apparatus. In the scanner, image information represented on an original printing (object to be scanned) is read to generate an image data by image reading unit. The generated image data are then processed with the help of the control data or program, and supplied to the image forming apparatus. As a result, image data read by the scanner are suitably processed depending on types of imaging printing apparatus and directly supplied thereto, without being routed to the host apparatus.
Therefore, amounts of data which should be stored into the memory unit of the scanner can be reduced, because it is not necessary that the memory unit previously store the plural kinds of control data or program in association with a plural types of image forming apparatus. In addition, image data are processed in accordance with the type of image forming apparatus and printed in the high-speed and simple manner.
It is preferred that the host apparatus or the scanner includes a selecting unit for selecting one of an image direct-forming mode in which image data corresponding to the image information are directly sent from the scanner to the image forming apparatus and an image indirect forming mode in which the image data are sent from the scanner to the image forming apparatus through the host apparatus. In a preferred example, the image forming apparatus is exchangeably connectible, and the control unit outputs the control data or the program corresponding to the image forming apparatus which is connected to the system. It is also preferred that the given time event includes a time event for setting of an operational environment of the scanner.
In a preferred example, a program for driving the scanner may be installed in the host apparatus and the setting of the operational environment of the scanner may include at least one of installation of the program for driving the scanner in the host apparatus and activation of power of the host apparatus. According to such preferred example, at a time when the scanner driver program is installed in the host apparatus or the power of the host apparatus is activated, the control data or program are outputted from the host apparatus to the scanner. Hence, before the scanner is used, the control data or program are firmly stored in the memory of the scanner. This enables direct forming of images between the scanner and the image forming apparatus.
As another preferred example, the control data and program may include color conversion data, a color conversion program for printing a color image, and an interface program intervening between the host apparatus and the image forming apparatus. By this, the color conversion data or color conversion program or the interface program between the host apparatus and the image forming apparatus are stored in the memory of the scanner, which makes it possible that the image data read by the scanner are properly processed in agreement with types of image forming apparatus, although they are not outputted to the host apparatus. Even when the image forming apparatus is changed from one type to another, color images of preferable quality can be formed by the changed image forming apparatus to which image data are sent directly from the scanner.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a scanner connected to a host apparatus and an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material using image data produced from image information represented on an object, the scanner including: an image reading unit for reading the image information on the object and generating image data according to the image information; a memory being rewritable and having a memory capacity for storing control data or a program for controlling the image forming apparatus, the control data and program corresponding to the image forming apparatus; and a control unit for storing, into the memory, the control data or program outputted from the host apparatus so that the image reading unit reads the image information on the object and produces the image data, for processing the image data on the basis of the control data and program stored, and for outputting the processed image data to the image forming apparatus.
According to the scanner thus configured, at a time when the control data or program are outputted from the control unit of the host apparatus to the scanner, they are stored into the rewritable memory by the control unit of the scanner. This eliminates the necessity of previously storing, into the memory of the scanner, plural kinds of control data or a program each corresponding to plural types of image forming apparatus. Like in the host apparatus, an appropriate control is carried out in the scanner in agreement with types of the image forming apparatus. This control starts in response to the inputted signal indicative of the image direct-producing mode. In the scanner, image information represented on an original printing (object to be scanned) is read to generate an image data by image reading unit. The generated image data are then processed with the help of the control data or program, and provided to the image forming apparatus. As a result, image data read by the scanner are suitably processed depending on types of imaging printing apparatus and directly provided thereto, without being routed to the host apparatus.
Therefore, amounts of data which should be stored into the memory of the scanner can be reduced, because it is not necessary that the memory previously store the plurality of control data or program in association with plural types of image forming apparatus. Since plural kinds of printing control data or program are not necessary to be previously stored in the scanner for each type of image forming apparatus possibly used, the capacity of the memory of the scanner can be reduced. In addition, the image direct-producing mode enables fast and simplified color image forming even when image forming apparatus are exchanged.
The control unit may store the control data or the program in response to a given signal indicative of an image direct-forming mode. In a preferred example, the control data or program may include color conversion data, a color conversion program for printing a color image, and an interface program intervening between the host apparatus and the image forming apparatus. According to the scanner thus configured, the color conversion data or program, or the interface program between the host apparatus and the image forming apparatus are stored in the memory of the scanner. The image data read by the scanner are not routed to the host apparatus and suitably processed in the scanner according to a type of each image forming apparatus. This also leads to efficient direct forming of color images between the scanner and an image forming apparatus for an updated type thereof.
In a preferred example, the scanner may include the selecting unit for providing the signal in response to selection of the image direct-forming mode. By this, when the image direct-forming mode is selected by the selecting unit in the scanner, direct forming of images is carried out between the scanner and the image forming apparatus, even in a condition that the power of the host apparatus is off. Therefore, image forming under the image direct-forming mode can be carried out through the same operation as a usual scan mode under which image data scanned are sent out to the host apparatus.
According to still another preferred example, the rewritable memory may be a flash EEPROM. Since the volatile and rewritable memory consists of a flash EEPROM, it is less expensive and larger in capacity, and rewritable in all the bits or the block unit. Thus, when image forming apparatus are altered from one to another, the memory data can be reloaded at one time to efficiently and steadily store the control data or program of a relatively large amount. Furthermore, the flash EEPROM are less expensive than a full-featured EEPROM, and hence the cost of scanner can be reduced.